News digest 10 October 2013

News digest 10 October 2013

10 October 2013

As many of the right wing papers follow up on the BBC poll that says despite all the cuts most people think public services are as good or better, few question the fact that most cuts have yet to come into force and there is yet another round coming, every penny will count.

And from pennies to pounds and thousands of people have applied for shares in the about to be privatised Royal Mail, there have been 700,000 applications for shares making the sale seven times oversubscribed, but don’t consider that a success as even as the 52.2 per cent stake being sold is being offloaded at the 330p top of the price range, the government could have got so much more, although that one off boost to government coffers will be outweighed by all the assets that will be stripped from the service as the fat cats take the cream, the Times reports a broker as saying the Royal Mail was underpriced by 80 per cent, yes 80 per cent while according to the Telegraph the Royal Mail has warned MPs that is will focus on ‘modernising’ jobs going forward, that means job cuts are on the way.

But don’t worry says the government, we’ll make sure to keep an eye on the service and it will be fine, after all look what has happened on the railways, the government has said it will cap price rises, but only at double the level of inflation, not such a benefit really and then there’s fuel bills, this morning customers from SSE – the company formerly known as Scottish and Southern Energy – were told they will see an average 8.2 per cent rise in gas and electricity prices from 15 November, and word from the government, well yes the energy minister justified the rise based on wholesale costs, so much for the government helping ordinary people, but then that’s what we’ve come to expect from the Con Dem coalition…